Leaves From My Sketchbooks. 61. Ruined Cottage, Motueka

For a few years in the 1960s New Zealanders were blind to the treasures in their midst. That's when many colonial buildings were destroyed for ever. Fortunately we came to our senses and a significant amount of heritage has been preserved thanks to organizations like the Historic Places Trust. This cottage at Motueka, among the tobacco and hop fields, was not beyond repair but I doubt if anybody saved it.

I found it a delight, so much so that I did another drawing of it on a white, porcelain Thomas plate, using iron oxide mixed with oil of cloves to make an ink. As the oil evaporated it left the oxide as configured 'dust'. Then, very carefully, it was placed into a kiln and baked until the plate's glaze ran and permanently incorporated the image.

I had it in mind to do a whole dinner service of cottages but, apart from a series of round tiles, I only ever did the one plate which now graces our sideboard, a paved intention on my road to hell!

© DON DONOVAN. donovan@ihug.co.nz 
www. don-donovan.blogspot.co.nz
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New Zealand Odyssey; Tobacco Crop, Brooklyn Farm, Motueka

'New Zealand Odyssey', published in 1989 by Heinemann, was authored by me, Don Donovan (who did the text and illustrations) and Euan Sarginson, who did the photography and design. In this series of blog posts, I will publish some of my drawings.

The Motueka area in 1988 had an abundance of hop and tobacco farms. The hops go on today, but tobacco has become a no-no, having killed generations of smokers. It's still legal to grow the crop, but under very strict regulations, and if there are any tobacco farmers left they will have little to hand over to their heirs.

The crop was picturesque and the aroma inside that drying kiln was seductive. So, within a short lifetime this has become an historic picture and a once proud occupation 'Tobacco Farmer' as desirable as a kiss with hepatitis. 

Interestingly, Keith Holyoake, a prime minister of New Zealand, who died five years before I did this drawing, was once a tobacco farmer in Motueka; nothing to be ashamed of then.

© DON DONOVAN

donovan@ihug.co.nz

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The Rat Trap, Takaka

I wrote and illustrated ‘The Good Old Kiwi Pub’. It was published in 1995 and was a snapshot of some New Zealand pubs as they were at the end of the 20th century. I have decided to share some of the entries from the book from time to time on this blog.

The Rat Trap, built in 1903, guarded the only road exit from the Takaka Valley to Riwaka, Motueka and the market gardens of Tasman Bay. I painted it on a number of occasions because it offered such a welcoming prospect after the breathtaking descent into the valley from the limestone heights of Takaka Hill-the ‘Marble Mountain’.

While well-known all over Nelson Province, the pub was never more popular than in the late 1930s when more than five hundred workers were constructing the hydroelectric dam in nearby Cobb Valley. That’s when the Upper Takaka Hotel was given its nickname. Life was hard at the remote dam site and the men sometimes became ’stir crazy’, so much so that absenteeism, caused by workers not returning to camp after making supply trips, became commonplace.

‘Where are the men?’ the overseer would demand.

The answer would come, ‘Caught in the Rat Trap1′

They solved the problem by buying truckloads of beer from the pub and selling it in the works canteen. They bought so much that the Rat Trap’s beer sales were greater than any other pub in Nelson Province.

It’s still possible to get trapped in Golden Bay if the hill is closed by snow and ice but, sadly, you won’t find comfort at the Rat Trap; it burned to the ground on 19 May 1994. It’s a tragic story; a husband and wife were proprietors and she, with tortured mind, fired the place which had trapped her and turned her into what her defence counsel at her arson trial described as ‘a lonely and terrified woman’. With heartening compassion the jury found her not guilty.

I grieve for her, her husband and the old Rat Trap. This watercolour was painted for a calendar which was published in 1994. On the last page of this book you’ll find the remains of this dear old pub . . .

© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz
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